Bishkek

Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, is situated at an altitude of 750 meters above sea level. It has area of 124 square km and a population of approximately 670,000 people. The city was constructed on the site of a fort (called Pishpek) built by the Khan of Kokand in 1825 and destroyed by the Russians in 1862. Russians and Ukrainians began to settle here in the latter decades of the 19th century, planting beets, wheat and potatoes in the fertile valleys. Known briefly as Bishkek (the word bishkek means a churn used to make fermented mare's milk) after the Soviet takeover, the city was renamed Frunze in 1926, in honour of Mikhail Frunze, the Soviet general who won Central Asia for the Bolsheviks in the Civil War. The city was again renamed Bishkek when Kyrgyzstan declared its independence in 1991.